UAE ranked Global Leader in Fibre to the Home Network

Abu Dhabi, May 5, 2013 (WAM) - UAE was recently ranked as a global leader in connecting homes in the country on the fibre to the home (FTTH) network, as per recent industry report. This achievement was possible mainly due to the huge investment made by Etisalat UAE in the network which exceeded Dh19 billion. According to the annual study conducted by Panorama Research on the Global FTTH market for the FTTH global council, UAE has taken the lead with a penetration rate of 72 per cent. The ranking covers all countries with at least 200, 000 households where the penetration of FTTH has reached 1 per cent of total number of homes. In 2013, 36 countries were members of the Global Ranking with UAE taking the lead at a bigger margin to South Korea, the nearest competitor at 57 percent of homes subscribing to FTTH. The other countries close to this market penetration were Japan, Russia, USA and France. A significant achievement for Etisalat is that it took the prime role in financing and executing the FTTH project. In other countries globally, investment is carried out by the government and then rented out to be used by operators. In UAE, the government played a major role in providing logistics to carry out the project successfully. Etisalat is in a position to showcase its accomplishments to a global audience due to its successful installations at home via triple play platform One of the major achievements for the country was the connection of Abu Dhabi, which became the first capital in the world with FTTH connectivity across the network. The FTTH project completed by Etisalat connected over 1.3 million homes in the country. They have case studies which are benchmarks of success for other operators in the region. UAE has been in the top position in terms of FTTH installations since couple of years and therefore with the success of operators like Etisalat, it was evident that the country would take the leading place in the region." – Emirates News Agency, WAM